M&M Cookies

I made M&M Cookies a few days ago. I ran out of time the other day when I made them. I didn't get a chance to scoop or bake all the dough. I just put the extra dough in a container. I thought I'd finish baking them this morning. Warm cookies sounded yummy on this cool autumn-like morning!

Making cookies is almost therapeutic to me. I LOVE scooping cookie dough. At my last job as a pastry chef, I was the head baker at a local university. I made lots and lots of cookies. I had student helpers all the time. I would have them do the hard jobs, which they were quite eager to learn and do, while I would scoop cookie dough. The other baker would have them scoop dough all day long. Needless to say, most of the students preferred to work for me ;) Me, I could scoop dough all day. It relaxes me. Sounds a little strange, I know. L and I make cookies all the time. She especially likes making M&M Cookies because she gets to press M&Ms on the top of the cookies. She is a little M&M obsessed anyway. Pair them with cookies, and it is just magical to her. M&M cookie dough is very versatile too. You could substitute Reese's Pieces or any candy coated bite size candy that you like.

Forrest Mars, Sr., founder of the Mars Company, got the idea for the candy in the 1930s during the Spanish Civil War. He saw soldiers eating chocolate pellets that were coated with a hard shell of tempered chocolate. This kept the candies from melting. Mars received a patent for his own candy in March of 1941. Production started later that year at a factory in New Jersey. One M was for Forrest Mars, Sr. The other M was for William F. R. Murrie, president of Hershey's Chocolate. Murrie had 20% interest in the product. This allowed the candy to be made with Hershey chocolate which had control of the rationed chocolate. Originally, they were made in 5 colors: red, yellow, brown, green, and violet. They were packaged in a cardboard tube, similar to Smarties.